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Classic FM’s: Classic 100

We’re asking Queenslanders to make The Pearlfishers Duet Au fond du temple saint this year’s number one in Classic FM’s: Classic 100, when voting starts on 12 May.

For the uninitiated, the Classic 100 is a bit like Triple J’s hottest 100, but you get to vote on music from over four hundred years rather than just one. This year the Classic 100 theme is love, and although the famous duet did climb the ranks to number two last year, with Queensland’s backing it could nab the top spot in 2017.

OperaQ does have a rather large, not at all altruistic reason for the statewide shoutout as it’s staging The Pearlfishers from 25 May to 3 June in the Lyric Theatre at QPAC.

It’s the first time in 15 years that a production of The Pearlfishers has been seen in Queensland and with Australia’s prima diva Emma Matthews, Aldo Di Toro, Grant Doyle and Andrew Collis starring, it should be something pretty special.

So why else should Queenslanders rise to the occasion and vote this stunning duet to numéro un? Here are a five reasons why Queenslanders should vote for Au fond du temple saint:

It doesn’t just have love, it has a bromance. The two singers are friends who are in love with the same woman but swear to remain true to each other;

Peter Weir used it in Gallipoli to express mateship – you can’t get more true blue than that;

It could have actually made it into Triple J’s hottest 100 – well in 1951 at least when Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill topped the charts with a recording;

The Pearlfishers is often called “Bizet’s other opera”, although to be fair to the composer his career was cut rather short when he died at 36, straight after Carmen. But guess what was played at his funeral – yes you got it, Au fond du temple saint; and finally

Just listen to it – if you don’t have a tear in your eye by the end then you’re made of stone.